Lena Waithe

Writer, Creator, Producer, Actor

Emmy® Award–winning writer, creator, producer, and actor Lena Waithe first made headlines in front of the camera as Denise in the critically acclaimed Netflix series Master of None. Waithe cowrote the “Thanksgiving” episode, for which she received an Emmy® Award in the category of outstanding writing for a comedy series and an NAACP Image Award nomination. She currently serves as creator and executive producer of the Showtime drama series The Chi, which was recently greenlighted for a third season and also BET’s Boomerang, which will return to the network for a second season. Waithe’s upcoming projects include Twenties, which she created, wrote, and will produce for BET, and Queen & Slim, which she wrote, starring Daniel Kaluuya and Jodie Turner-Smith and directed by Melina Matsoukas, to be distributed by Universal Pictures, as well as Showtime’s How to Make Love to a Black Woman, which she is set to executive produce. As a producer, Waithe’s credits include Step Sisters and Dear White People. She also has Them: Covenant, a horror anthology series for Amazon, and HBO’s Untitled Kid Fury Project, both of which she will produce.